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Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Tulip Tryptich, or I get a lot of mileage out of dying flowers

This is me being fascinated with the shapes of dying flowers, and still inspired by the idea of doing a series of works. So I decided to push myself beyond the urge to make a bunch of pretty pictures, which could have been easy, as my plain pencil drawings of the flowers were interesting enough I think, but I couldn't resist the urge to add colour to them. Perhaps I will do a few pencil ones and just leave them be.

If I was trying to be arty-farty, I would call this sex-love-death, especially as the details of the petals and parts of the stamen were looking quite sexual to me, but I try to resist arty-fartiness. It's bad enough that I've used the word tryptich.

hello tammy! it's so nice to hear from you! In my oppinion, you are doing really well, because you draw a lot. And that is really the only key. Drawing and experimenting with different styles and techniques. I started going to watercolour courses and chinese ink-painting recently (with all the old ladies), and found that my "normal" style changed for the better all of a sudden. Well, this is no news to you I guess. You have an original stroke, that is clear even on the screen. Alex, the bird, was originally a character I developed for a childrens book, but he alway ended up saying "grown up" things, so that's the story of him. I guess the most important thing when you feel you are stuck, is to try to expand your limits. Do something the opposite way. Draw something the way you have never done it before. Super naturalistic with all shades and dots, or gigantic oil paintings or just f**k it all and drink wine and see what happens. JUST DON'T GIVE UP! You are such an inspiration to so many people! Have you ever scanned something and then printed it out really big? I bet your drawings would look so funky 1.5 meters long, printed out on canvas. Big big hugs, Caroline (keep me posted!)

Tammy - both series are really fascinating! I think dying flowers have a beauty of their own...their petals take on a different shape and texture. You've done a great job capturing that change. I like the bits of paper you've included and the blocks of color. The yellows/oranges/greens are an effective combination.